Students Module 4 Page 1

THE NATION CLASSROOM
History as It Happened

RACE RELATIONS and CIVIL RIGHTS
MODULE FOUR: 1919-1929

PERIOD SUMMARY: As some 350,000 African-American US soldiers returned from service in World War I (1914–1918), they found the injustices of their home nation unchanged. Racist Jim Crow laws enforced segregation and unequal citizenship in the South. Determined to find a better life, some half a million black southerners moved to the industrial cities of the North. There, they competed with white immigrants for jobs and housing, which increased tensions between the races.

In the “Red Summer” of 1919, a widespread series of urban race riots broke out, mostly initiated by whites, in which scores of black people were lynched and thousands were terrorized—while law-enforcement and government representatives generally did nothing. Despite this atmosphere of noxious racism, African Americans achieved extraordinary things in the arts, education, sports, and other fields during these years. In particular, black artists created enduring literary, musical, and visual-arts works in a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Below you’ll find excerpts from selected articles about this era that ran in The Nation during that time.

The DBQ (document-based question) about this set of excerpts is: In the 1920s, Americans had widely differing opinions about the proper status of African Americans in US society. Discuss those contrasting ideas, and demonstrate ways in which they were expressed during the decade.

AS YOU READ: Things to Look For

Recall. Which documents point to African-American achievements? Which ones point to hindrances to opportunity?

Analyze content. Most of the authors below played significant roles in the events of that decade. Try to identify the writer’s race based on the document’s content. How do you know? Which selections are more ambiguous as to the writer’s race? Why?

Identify context clues. The word chivalry is used in two separate excerpts (once in its adjective form, chivalrous). What does the word mean, and how does its usage alert you that it might have particular significance? How might the concept of chivalry fit into the historical theme being discussed here?

Create meaning. From the examples given here, as well as your previous knowledge of the era, determine two main opposing forces that drove the events of the decade, particularly as they relate to civil rights.